The family of Olympic bronze-medalist boxer Dick "Tiger" Murunga on Saturday appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to help give their departed patriarch a worthy send-off.
In a statement seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the family also asked Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa and the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) to give recognition to the boxing legend.
"Dad was among the Sports retired personalities awarded during the inaugural National Olympic Committee Gala.
"We are now urging...and all Sports stakeholders to stand with us in this time of need and help us appreciate and recognise the role our departed father played in proudly putting our beautiful country Kenya on the global professional boxing map," the statement by his son Mohammed Murunga read in part.
The family clarified that the retired boxer passed away at the Kenyatta National Hospital where he was receiving treatment for a sudden illness.
"At the time of death, dad was confined to a wheelchair following a spinal injury he sustained in March of 2002 during training at a hotel gym in Mombasa.
"He had retired from the sport four years earlier but was recalled by boxing administrators to return to professional boxing in New York," the statement elaborated.
Murunga brought home the bronze medal from the 1972 Munich Olympic games. The following year he got the African Welterweight Champion accolade.
He is also credited with founding the Kenya Professional Boxing Association.
Murunga had appeared on local TV stations a few months after his injury asking for Ksh 4 million that would go toward a corrective procedure to help him walk again.
